The Greatest Showman is running for president. Well, technically Hugh Jackman is playing a man who once ran for president, but I refuse to call the Australian actor by anything other than The Greatest Showman. In Jason Reitman’s The Front Runner, Jackman (OK I’ll use his name) is portraying a politician whose White House potential was derailed by an alleged affair.

In 1987, Colorado senator Gary Hart was the Democratic front runner in the presidential race. After the media claimed he was having an affair, it was all downhill and Hart quickly dropped out of the race. Reitman, on the heels of this year’s Tully (one of ScreenCrush’s favorite movies of the summer), couldn’t believe Hart’s story hadn’t been told on screen before, so he decided to do it himself.

Reitman, who told Entertainment Weekly the film attempts to tell the story from multiple perspectives, co-wrote it with Matt Bai, author of the book the film is based on, All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid, as well as former Hilary Clinton spokesman Jay Caron. Based on the first trailer, there’s a couple explosive scenes that may get Jackman some awards season attention, along with Vera Farmiga, who plays Hart’s wife Lee.

The Front Runner stops by the Telluride and Toronto film festivals this week and next before hitting theaters a day after the midterm elections, November 7.